Live data from Hacker News

How the Valley treats experienced people

rachelbythebay.com

451–460 of 508 posts

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#451
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There was one notable exception, and that was my experience with Triplebyte. They have a much better technical interview process than any I have seen anywhere else This looks just like an Ad I see on reddit all over the place.

This comment breaks the site guidelines, which specifically ask you not to do this. If you're worried about abuse, you're welcome to email us at hn@ycombinator.com so we can investigate. The guidelines say that too. Would you mind reading them and following them when posting here? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

im not going to create an email to anonymously notify the same site who will review a flagged comment anyway. So, to the process as described, no. I think the comment was timely and relevant, others just disagree about the utility.

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#452
post #68

Sometimes you don't make enough money to retire early from a combination of bad luck and poor financial decisions. In my career, I followed a pattern of going to a company just a bit too late to get the really low priced options. I've ended up with dozens of former co-workers who are multimillionaires. I had a family and was (in hindsight) too conservative about when I went to a company. I also was a "paper" milliona…

> Sometimes you don't make enough money to retire early from a combination of bad luck and poor financial decisions. This feels a bit wrong to me. I don't think it takes bad luck or poor decisions to not be able to retire early for most people. I think it's quite to opposite. I think it's pretty rare and you need a serious stroke of good luck to be able to retire significantly early. Maybe it's different in the valle…

Did you read the article? It's not about most people. The article is about jobs in the Silicon Valley software/tech industry not just jobs in general. Everybody at startups and software companies gets options, and a small but not insignificant percentage of them get rich. The article is about the attitude that if you didn't get rich you must not be any good at your job.

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#455
post #68

Sometimes you don't make enough money to retire early from a combination of bad luck and poor financial decisions. In my career, I followed a pattern of going to a company just a bit too late to get the really low priced options. I've ended up with dozens of former co-workers who are multimillionaires. I had a family and was (in hindsight) too conservative about when I went to a company. I also was a "paper" milliona…

You are being too hard on yourself. Your personal history is an extremely recent phenomenon in civilization where there is no guide on what to do simply because virtually no humans have ever been in that scenario. Even today, most people are unfortunately terribly financially illiterate - especially with equity.

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#456

I kind of feel like the author is referring to Zuckerberg's famous comment about young people being smarter. I don't remember the exact quote, but it was suitably shocking and stupid so it's a candidate anyway. The thing I like about Rachel's take on this is that she gets right to the key thing: regardless of what field you're in, or how you spend your time, the vast majority of us are going to be neither horrible fa…

From a point of view, I might even agree with Zuck's asinine statement. When I was in my 20's, I had no idea how many things I truly did not know. So, in my limited "fresh out of college" way, I was pushing maximum intelligence. As the years have flown by, I've learned just how vast many fields are. Introspectively, I've learned that I'm not the brightest mind in any given room. As a matter of fact, I've just barely…

> I've learned that I'm not the brightest mind in any given room

I find it scarier when I am the brightest mind in a room, at least on a specific topic. I understand everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, and given the chance to share, many people can make contributions, even sometimes from people you may not expect at first blush.

There are other times though when, not so much through hubris but sort of... delayed understanding(?) - I end up realizing I am the brightest/smartest in a room (at least for the topics at hand). Sometimes you're expected to lead - false modesty won't do anyone much good there. Sometimes you're expected to lead and someone else ends up thinking they're the smartest one, and become a pain to deal with. Looking back I realize I've been that person, and wonder if I could have done anything differently (honestly don't know - lots of factors at play there).

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#457
post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is one of the least egalitarian of developed nations.

Maybe it's because the intelligent families have already risen to the top in the US but not in the other countries.

I wish more people on this site would refrain from chucking crap arguments against a wall hoping they’ll stick. It’s exhausting to have to constantly point out invalid arguments to people who can’t be bothered to take responsibility for their intellectual pollution.

> the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

If we accept this definition, and the United States scores poorly, then it means that either:

* not all people are treated as equal * or not all people have equal rights * or not all people have equal opportunities

Could you please clarify how your comment is relevant as a response to a comment about egalitarianism?

Stated differently: if your comment is true, what is the implication?

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can always move to another zip code.

Do we live in the same america?

I don't know where you are, but people come to America by the millions traveling thousands of miles on foot. Then they spread all over the country.

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#459
I am yet another, visibly old (57), former paper (one) millionaire. I like sailing, climbing, biking, skiing, snowboarding, etc., but I have zero interest in retiring and pursuing any of these activities full time. It would become too boring. I'm self employed and work on cutting edge R&D projects I'm passionate about. I really don't care what someone's definition of success and its timetable is, neither should you.

Re: How the Valley treats experienced people

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a point of view, I might even agree with Zuck's asinine statement. When I was in my 20's, I had no idea how many things I truly did not know. So, in my limited "fresh out of college" way, I was pushing maximum intelligence. As the years have flown by, I've learned just how vast many fields are. Introspectively, I've learned that I'm not the brightest mind in any given room. As a matter of fact, I've just barely…

> I've learned that I'm not the brightest mind in any given room I find it scarier when I am the brightest mind in a room, at least on a specific topic. I understand everyone has different backgrounds and experiences, and given the chance to share, many people can make contributions, even sometimes from people you may not expect at first blush. There are other times though when, not so much through hubris but sort of…

The day I noticed my tenure was longer than the median Google engineer was horrifying. "You mean half of these people know less than I do how this stuff works?"
Post reply on HN